July 20, 2013

I slept in until

8:30

which kind of surprised and annoyed me. I got up, took a shower, got ready, and ate breakfast. By the time we had done all this and talked to people who were sitting in the kitchen, it was already 10. I had the rice and lentil mixture with refried black beans, avocado, and a mango. We went down to the prepa classroom and worked on writing out all of the standards for Amber's curriculum project. We used a different color post-it note for each subject. We are using the Guatemalan standards for math and science, the Arizona English Language Proficiency standards for language, speaking and listening, writing, and reading, and supplementing with the Common Core math and reading standards. We got a lot done, but we decided to take a break to go to Cenma (pronounced SEG-muh) to cash Amber's check. It had been raining while we worked on standards, but it began to rain in earnest when we got ready to leave. I decided to change into a different skirt so I wouldn't get my salsa dancing skirt wet. While we were in Cenma, we went to La Torre, which is a supermarket, to enlarge a photo for Bernabe and Nirma. We then went next door to a store called El Mismo Precio. Each item in the store has two prices. If you buy at least six items, you pay the lower price. We bought a picture frame to go with the picture and some strawberry nougat candy and a surprise souvenir for my family. There was a very long line for the Cenma bus. We got home just in time to quickly finish the Guatemalan science and math standards. We packed quickly and left about

4:45

with Kasper, Linda, and Jess. It was pouring down rain. I decided that I really need to get a decent raincoat for traveling since my favorite one died. We had to take 3 buses to get to Antigua. It was an uneventful trip until we arrived on Antigua.  Jess knew a hostel called La Casa Amarilla that they had stayed in before where breakfast is included. She thought it was at the southernmost street in Antigua so we walked all the way down there in the sprinkling rain just to find out that it actually was in the northern part of Antigua (which is where we had just come from). We found a few other hostels, all of which were full. We went to OnVisa II which was also full, but the man (named Byron) said he might know a place to stay. He called a family he knows right down the street (first street west of seventh avenue) and they did have space. We were not sure what we were getting into, but we went to see. It was a family's house and they rent out three rooms, which was perfect for our group. Linda and Kasper shared a room, Amber and I shared a room, and Jess had a single room to herself. It was nice and looked clean, but we were concerned with how much it was going to cost because we did have private rooms. We were shocked and pleased to find out they were still charging the hostel price which was 50 quetzals a person ($6). We got ready for the evening and went to find food. I was really hungry. We found a restaurant near the house called Los Nazarenos. We ordered nachos as an appetizer. I had grilled eggplant, and veggies and a pineapple licuado which only cost 10Q. We went to Central Park to find an ATM for Jess and then we went to Las Palmas to salsa dance

at 9:45. I really liked the atmosphere of the place. It was all salsa with a bit of merengue, bachata, and one song of cha cha. The majority of the time, the live band played. when they took breaks and near the end, they played CDs. Amber and Jess were picked to dance right away. I was surprised when a guy came up right after and asked me to dance. His name was Jorge. I felt horribly out of practice since I had not salsa danced since the last time in Guatemala. I do enjoy dancing so much, even though I am not very good. I don't really know why, but Jorge continued dancing with me the entire evening. He was a really good dancer. We only stopped for a few minutes at a time and when we weren't dancing, we were speaking Spanish, so that was good practice, too. Altogether it was a very fun evening. We went back to where we were staying when Las Palmas closed
at 1am

. Amber and I stayed up and talked I until

2:30

. Amber was going to sleep in the twin bed, but she was freezing so we decided to share the big bed. I wore a most unusual assortment of clothing to bed: socks, capri pajama pants, tank top, and water resistant jacket which got really hot and sweaty in the night.